At an event organized this week in Milan by Res and New Direction, Italian Member of the European Parliament and Vice-Chairman of the Committee on International Trade of the European Parliament, Mrs. Cristiana Muscardini, warned that counterfeiting has been gaining dangerous pace in the past years, reaching almost 2 billion euros. She stressed ‘ the lack of a serious and effective fight against this scourge is damaging to all Italians, especially at a time when the Italian Government needs one billion Euros to avoid the VAT increase’.

The speakers unanimously expressed agreement that the only solution to counter the current challenges is to introduce certificates of origin, which some E.U. countries, including Germany and Sweden.

Attending the event was also Paolo Zegna, CEO of Ermenegildo Zegna SpA said: “We were among the first to go to China with our collections and we know it well . The local authorities are very strict about the origin of goods, as a result are very high costs that Italian companies have to bear the registration of trademarks and to provide all required documentation . You can say that the Chinese have more sensitivity to the real Made in Italy with respect to us , that we should defend it and instead we are forced to face the entrance to the Peninsula as we can fake products .”